Sims

Thunderf00t have predicted that for a few years. Still on track I think…

Damn you :-)

As others say, it can be done. If you want more normal umpf, you’ll need to mount parts of the filesystem to your ssd. You can mount /home or / on ssd, or have an overlay file system as a file on an ssd/hdd, or use bcachefs with back propagation to the usb, or similar fancy setups.

So you’ll boot linux kernel from the usb, but most disk activity will be on your ssd. Fun project, but not super easy/practical if it isn’t done automatically.

My old HP microserver is ‘made’ to boot from a usb-stick inserted on the mb.

Anyway, perhaps an AI can suggest a script to do what you want ?

I’ve installed Bazzite fedora spin, and are waiting for 6.14 to enable my new Npu.

Not in a hurry, but does anyone know how long it takes on average for kernel updates to be ready for the spin-off’s ? The process seems very automated, so it may not take very long ?

Something in the line of https://gitlab.com/ananicy-cpp/ananicy-cpp ?

Didn’t know what uBlue was, so here: https://universal-blue.org/

"The Universal Blue project builds a diverse set of continuously delivered operating system images using bootc. That’s nerdspeak for the ultimate Linux client: the reliability of a Chromebook, but with the flexibility and power of a traditional Linux desktop.

These images represent what’s possible when a community focuses on sharing best practices via automation and collaboration. One common language between dev and ops, and it’s finally come to the desktop.

We also provide tools for users to build their own image using our templates and processes, which can be used to ship custom configurations to all of your machines, or finally make the Linux distribution you’ve long wished for, but never had the tools to create.

At long last, we’ve ascended."

Been enjoying Linux for ~25 years, but have never been happy with how it handled low memory situations. Swapping have always killed the system, tho it have improved a little. It’s been a while since I’ve messed with it. I’ve buckled up and are using more ram now, but afair, you can play with:

(0. reduce running software, and optimize them for less memory, yada yada)

1. use a better OOM (out of memory) manager that activates sooner and more gracefully. Search in your OS’ repository for it.
2. use zram as a more intelligent buffer and to remove same (zero) pages. It can lightly compress lesser used memory pages and use a partition backend for storing uncompressible pages. You spend a little cpu, to minimize swap, and when needed, only swap out what can’t be compressed.
3. play with all the sysctl vm settings like swappiness and such, but be aware that there’s SO much misinformation out there, so seek the official kernel docs. For instance, you can adapt the system to swap more often, but in much smaller chunks, so you avoid spending 5 minutes to hours regaining control - the system may get ‘sluggish’, but you have control.
4. use cgroups to divide you resources, so firefox/chrome (or compilers/memory-hogs) can only use X amount before their memory have to swap out (if they don’t adapt to lower mem conditions automatically). That leaves a system for you that can still react to your input (while ff/chrome would freeze). Not perfect, tho.
5. when gaming, activate a low-system mode, where unnecessary services etc are disabled. I think there’s a library/command that helps with that (and raise priority etc), but forgot its name.

EDIT: 6. when NOT gaming, add some of your vram as swap space. Its much faster than your ssd. Search github or your repository for ‘vram cache’ or something like that. It works via opencl, so everyone with dedicated vram can use it as super fast cache. Perhaps others can remember the name/link ?

Something like that anyway, others will know more about each point.

Also, perhaps ask an AI to create a small interface for you to fiddle with vm settings and cgroups in an automated/permanent way ? just a quick thought. Good luck.